growing blue | jjk x bts

020

𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪

"Kibum hyung!"

Minho looked to see the older glaring at him as a customer had just been in the process of ordering. Most of the people who came in here knew about the laidback nature at this cafe but Minho froze as he looked up noting that it had been a protagonist ordering.

"I-I'm so sorry!" He said bowing towards the red-haired man. They always made sure to keep everything in an orderly manner when protagonists came into the cafe and recently they hadn't been visiting at all. "I didn't mean to interrupt!"

"It's fine," Hoseok said smiling as he felt bad for the boy's change of behavior around him. "I haven't decided what I wanted yet anyways."

Minho still seemed antsy that the attention was on him instead of the protagonist. He just wanted the redhead to order so they could get him to not wait on them, protagonists shouldn't wait on normal characters, that's not how it works.

"So what did you need?" Kibum said as he broke the silence placing his hands on his hips. "Or were you just trying to annoy me since you thought the cafe was empty?"

"No, I need the first aid kit," Minho said as he looked back at Kibum the older immediately growing serious at his statement. "I don't know where it's at."

"Are you okay?" Kibum said walking away from the counter to look at Minho. Hoseok wasn't trying to eavesdrop but it was quite hard not to when he was basically right there. He ordered a latte almost every time he came here and they'd easily be able to get his order in a few minutes but they seemed to have more important issues to deal with and Hoseok was fine with that. Especially since whatever was wrong required a first aid kit. "I thought you were on break, how'd you hurt yourself?"

"It's not me, it's Jeongguk."

Hoseok now definitely had all his attention moved to the two cafe workers feeling concerned about what could have happened to the younger. His boyfriends and himself had been trying not to talk to Jeongguk as that seemed just to make him hate them more and they had been struggling to think of a way to get closer to the boy.

Earlier that day during lunch they all had seen how tired he looked and how he fell asleep on his friend's laps. Nobody admitted it but it was obvious they all seemed jealous of the two sophomores who Jeongguk was laying on and they wanted him to sleep up on the roof with them instead.

"Do you know what you'd like to order sir?"

Hoseok seemed to fall out of his daze to see a cafe worker in front of him and looked to see the person's name to be Minho. He so desperately wanted to ask about Jeongguk and if he was okay but that'd be the exact opposite of what he had promised to do with his friends.

They weren't supposed to interfere with Jeongguk's life until he welcomed them too. If he asked about the boy it'd just cause everyone to be confused why he cared and he didn't want to force that attention on Jeongguk.

"I think I'm good," Hoseok said as he had lost his appetite after hearing Jeongguk was hurt. "I'll just go."

Minho felt panicked seeing the protagonist leave with nothing but as he looked around the cafe he noted it was basically empty now anyway. It was insane the contrast between it either being packed or empty but instead of focusing on that he decided to go back and see how Jeongguk was doing.

Kibum had situated the younger boy to lay down on the table a cold tablecloth situated on his forehead. Minho could tell that the younger was in pain with how much he appeared to be grimacing.

"Minho, did you see the person who did this to him?"

"It was some old guy."

"It's fine guys," Jeongguk said as he winced while Kibum placed more anticipant on his arm. "Don't w-worry."

"It's not fine Jeongguk!" Kibum said harshly and then sighed realizing how much that startled the younger. "People shouldn't just hurt you like this, that's not okay. You don't deserve to be treated like that, nobody does. And you're just a kid!"

Jeongguk let his gaze stick to the ceiling as he listened to what Kibum had said to him. He was surprised that the workers at this shop seemed to joke with him and treat him like an acquaintance but they seemed to actually care about his health as well. First Bambam and Yugyeom and now them, Jeongguk really didn't know how to react having people around him that he could finally trust.

"Hey, are you okay?" Minho said as he placed his hand on top of Jeongguk's causing the younger to turn his head and look at him. He didn't realize he was crying until Minho wiped away a tear on his cheek. "I know it hurts but it'll be fine, Kibum and I are here for you right now. Now did you know this old man or was he just some stranger?"

Jeongguk really wanted to give in and spill everything so the man would be punished like he rightfully deserved but he stopped thinking about what that entailed. If he said he knew him from the other day when he spilled coffee on him they'd look back on the security tapes. Looking back on those would mean that they'd realize how protagonists had immediately saved him back then and they'd also see the time Jeongguk had talked to Jin.

He knew the security tapes didn't record sound but Jin had clearly asked why he dyed his hair and hid that he was a protagonist. What if there was a chance they'd be able to decipher through lip reading what he had said? Jeongguk couldn't have that. If getting justice meant that there was even the slightest chance his identity was revealed he couldn't take it. 

"I don't know him, he was just some angry drunk who happened to be down the alley when I went outside."

"Well we can't do much with that information, we don't even have cameras out in the alley," Kibum said as he began to wrap gauze around Jeongguk's arm. "I'll see if we can afford to do that and from now on we'll always go out in pairs to make sure that we're safe. Jeongguk you're off for the day. You can take as many days off as you need, do not come back until you're no longer injured. Can you get someone to pick you up to take you home or do you need Minho to walk with you back?"

Jeongguk was beginning to respond when suddenly he started coughing his hand immediately moving to his throat with how it was burning. The two older workers didn't know what to do in response to this as they had already gotten him a glass of water. Soon his coughing began to fizzle down and he frowned as he grasped onto his throat. 

"Jeongguk I'm going to call your parents so-"

Before Kibum could finish speaking  Jeongguk quickly grabbed onto his wrist and shook his head. The older frowned as his reaction but stopped from moving to his cellphone and watched as Jeongguk pointed to his locker. He walked over there opening it and bringing the bag to the younger and watched as he sorted through it and pulled out his phone.

"Jeongguk we could-"

"S-sister." He said as he showed them phone screen that had an open text conversation on it. "She'll g-get me."

-

Who do you think will have a comeback first f(x) or Pristin?